DRC gets 16,250 Ebola vaccine doses

Democratic Republic of Congo received 16,250 doses of the Ervebo Ebola vaccine by plane at Kinshasa airport on August 21, part of 70,000 doses that the World Health Organization said would be made available to the country during its current Ebola outbreak.

Congolese authorities reported 2,516 deaths among 5,290 confirmed cases. Julien Harneis, the UN's senior Ebola coordinator, warned on Friday that the outbreak “is growing exponentially.”

The outbreak, the DRC's 17th, was declared on May 15. It has affected parts of the north and east where health infrastructure is limited and armed groups have operated for decades.

Ervebo, developed by Merck and produced in Germany, is approved against the Zaire strain of Ebola, not the Bundibugyo strain now circulating in the DRC. WHO experts do not know whether it protects humans against Bundibugyo, though early data, including from animal trials, suggest it could offer some protection.

WHO said 20,000 of the 70,000 doses are intended for a clinical trial and 50,000 for frontline and health workers. Two vaccines specifically targeting the Bundibugyo strain are in clinical trials, and WHO has described an rVSV Bundibugyo vaccine to be developed by Singapore-based Hilleman Laboratories as “the most promising.”